California’s Comprehensive Protections for Immigrants and Persons Requesting Law Enforcement or Emergency Assistance in Residential Housing

By Bonnie C. Maly

Bonnie C. Maly is a Publications Attorney in CEB’s Real Property & Public Law Practice Group. Ms. Maly was previously a litigation attorney in California for nearly two decades, representing all kinds of parties in real estate and business litigation involving real property sales and financing, landlord-tenant and partnership disputes, construction defects, and construction contracts. She was also a volunteer court mediator and judge pro tem. She was a member of the Contra Costa Bar Association Real Estate Section for 30 years, and was its president in 1997-98.

For two years in a row, California adopted far-reaching protections for tenants in residential rental housing. The first law, passed in 2017, prohibits discrimination on the basis of, and making inquiries into, a person’s immigration status. The second law, enacted in 2018, is a comprehensive attempt to guide owners of both private and public rental housing through their dealings with tenants when the tenants (or residents, occupants, or other persons) make requests for law enforcement assistance or emergency assistance on the premises. This article summarizes these laws and highlights provisions that are of particular interest to public law attorneys.

I. IMMIGRATION PROTECTIONS.